Folk and Traditional Song Lyrics:Highwayman Outwitted

The Highwayman Outwitted

The Highwayman Outwitted
In Lincolnshire lived a rich farmer,
And his daughter to market would go;
Thinking that no body would harm her,
As she rode away to and fro.
Till she met with a lusty highwayman,
Her pockets he drew from her sides;
And as she stood shivering and shaking,
He gave her the bridle to hold.
From stirrip to saddle she mounted,
She threw her legs over like a man;
All the way that she gallop'd, she shouted
Now catch me you rogue, if you can.
This highwayman soon followed after,
A bullet from his pistol let fly;
He ran, but he could not come at her,
His boots they so hampered his knees.
As she rode over her father's green pasters,
It had just struck a eleven by the clock;
Her father was sorely afrighted, to see
Her ride home in her smock.
O daughter what has been the matter, you
Have tarried so long from your home?
O father I have been sorely afrighted,
But still I have come to no harm.
Then he pulled from behind her, a
Port mantell with several articals more;
And ninety score of bright guineas,
He tumbled them out on the floor.
O father this is a grand portion,
It will keep the wild wolf from the door;
O daughter it is a grand portion,
Unto thee I will give as much more.
Then here is a health to the lass,
That the risk of her life she has run;
She tricked the highwayman compIetely
Out of his horse, money and gun.
DT #682
Laws L2
Reprinted from a broadside by Harkness in the Houghton Library
at Harvard University in Laws American Balladry From British
Broadsides.
SOF
oct96